ploy and instruct children. Ibid, § 4. 5. The directors of said house of industry, or such other Directors to empersons as said city council shall appoint directors of the institution, authorized by the first section, may receive the persons sentenced and committed as aforesaid, into said institution; and they shall have power to place the persons committed to their care, the males until they arrive at the age of twenty-one years, and the females until they arrive at the age of eighteen years, at such employments, and to cause them to be instructed in such branches of useful knowledge, as shall be suitable to their years and capacity; and they shall have power shall have power to bind out said minors as apprentices or servants, until they arrive at the ages aforesaid, to such persons, and at such places, to learn such arts, trades, and employments, as in their judgment will be most for the reformation, amendment, and future benefit and advantage to bind out. &c., of the over of such minors. And the provisions of an act, entitled "an To have powers, act providing for the relief and support, employment and seers of the poor. removal of the poor, and for repealing all former laws made for these purposes," passed the twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, contained in the fourth, fifth and sixth sections thereof, so far as they relate to binding out children as servants or apprentices, are adopted as a part hereof; and the said directors shall have all the powers, and be subject to all the duties, of the overseers of the poor, as set forth in the sections aforesaid, of the act aforesaid; and the master or mistress, servant and apprentice, bound out as aforesaid, shall have all the rights and privileges, and be subject to all the duties, set forth in the sections aforesaid, of the act aforesaid.1 1 The sections of the act referred to, (stat. 1793, c. 59, which was repealed by the Revised Statutes,) are as follows: SECT 4. And be it further enacted, That said overseers be and they Overseers authorized to hereby are empowered, from time to time, to bind out, by deed indented or bind out poor poll, as apprentices, to be instructed and employed in any lawful art, trade, children." or mystery, or as servants to be employed in any lawful work or labor, any male or female children, whose parents are lawfully settled in and become actually chargeable to their town or district; also, whose parents, so settled, shall be thought by said overseers to be unable to maintain them Court may discharge, on re of directors. Ibid, $ 5. 6. Whenever said directors, overseers, or managers, commendation shall deem it expedient to discharge any minor, committed to their charge as aforesaid, and not bound out as a servant or apprentice, and shall recommend the same in writing to the court by whom such minor was committed, said court Proviso. Provision for instruction of children that are bound out. Duty of overseers respecting such children. Court C. Pleas authorized to discharge such children from their master, in case, &c. Apprentices dis charged, may be bound anew. Overseers may recover dam ages for breach of covenants in the deed. Apprentices may also have action on the deed. (whether they receive alms, or are so chargeable or not,) Provided, They be not assessed to any town or district charges, and also all such who, or whose parents residing in their town or district, are supported there at the charge of the commonwealth, or whose parents are unable to support them as aforesaid, to any citizen of this commonwealth; that is to say, male children till they come to the age of twenty-one years, and females till they come to the age of eighteen, or are married; which binding shall be as valid and effectual in law as if such children had been of the full age of twenty-one years, and had, by a like deed, bound themselves, or their parents had been consenting thereto : Provision to be made in such deed for the instructing of male children, so bound out, to read, write and cypher, and of females to read and write, and for such other instruction, benefit and allowance, either within or at the end of the term, as to the overseers may seem fit and reasonable. SECT 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of said overseers, to inquire into the usage of children already legally bound out, or that may be bound out by force of this act, and to defend them from injuries. And upon complaint by such overseers, made to the court of common pleas in the county where their town or district is, or where the child may be bound, against the master of any such child, for abuse, ill treatment or neglect, said court (having duly notified the party complained of) may proceed to hear the complaint, and if the same be supported, and the cause shall be judged sufficient, may liberate and discharge such child from his or her master, with costs, for which execution may be awarded; otherwise the complaint shall be dismissed, but without costs, unless it appear groundless and without probable cause, in which case costs shall be allowed the respondent. And any apprentice or servant, so discharged, or whose master shall decease, may be bound out anew for the remainder of the term, in manner aforesaid. And such overseers may also have remedy, by action on such deed, against any person liable thereby, for recovery of damages for breaches of any of the covenants therein contained, which, when recovered, shall be placed in the town or district treasury, deducting reasonable charges, and disposed of by the overseers, at their discretion, for the benefit and relief of such apprentice or servant within the term; the remainder, if any, to be paid him at the expiration thereof; and the court before which such cause shall be tried originally, and on the appeal, may also, upon the plaintiff's request, if they see cause, liberate and discharge such apprentice or servant from his master, if it hath not then been already done in the method before directed by this act. And such apprentice or servant shall have like remedy when their term is expired, for damages for the causes aforesaid, other than such (if any) for which damages may have been re shall have power to discharge him or her from the imprisonment or custody aforesaid. committed to 7. The said judge or either of the said justices, on the Children already application of either of the persons mentioned in the fourth house of correcsection, shall have power to order the transfer of any child transferred to committed to the common jail, or the house of correction, nile offenders. tion may be house for juve Ibid, § 6. covered as aforesaid, by action upon such deed to be delivered them for In case of And in case of elopement, any such apprentice or servant may be apprehended by any justice of the peace of the county, where he is bound or where he may be found, upon the complaint of the master, or any other be apprehended. on his behalf, and returned to his master by any person to whom the warrant may be directed, or may be first sent to the house of correction at the justice's discretion. And every person enticing any such apprentice or Persons enticing servant to elope from his master, or harboring him, knowing him to have to elope, liable eloped, shall be liable to the master's action for all damages sustained master. thereby. And the court of common pleas, either in the county where the Common pleas overseers binding, or the master of any apprentice or servant bound, live, may discharge apprentices for may also, upon complaint of such master, for gross misbehavior, discharge misbehavior. such apprentice or servant from his apprenticeship or service, after due notice to such overseers, and hearing thereupon. to action of the SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That said overseers shall have power Overseers authorized respectto set to work, or bind out to service by deed, as aforesaid, for a term not ing persons of exceeding one whole year at a time, all such persons residing and lawfully age." settled in their respective towns or districts, or who have no such settlement within this commonwealth, married, or unmarried, upwards of twentyone years of age, as are able of body, but have no visible means of support, who live idly, and use and exercise no ordinary or daily lawful trade or business to get their living by; and also all persons who are liable by any law to be sent to the house of correction, upon such terms and conditions as they shall think proper. Provided, always, That any person thinking Proviso, that him or herself aggrieved by the doings of said overseers, in the premises, vise overseers' may apply, by complaint, to the court of common pleas in the county doings. where they are bound, or where the overseers who bound them dwell, for relief; which court, after due notice to the overseers and to their masters, shall have power, after due hearing and examination, if they find sufficient cause, to liberate and discharge the party complaining from his or her master, and to release him or her from the care of the overseers, otherwise to dismiss the complaint, and to give costs to either party or not, as the court may think reasonable. court may re Separate branch for females may 1843, 22, § 1. and inmates of the same, on March 4, 1826, to the said house for the employment and reformation of juvenile offenders, to be received, kept, or bound out by the directors thereof, in conformity with the foregoing provisions. 8. The city of Boston is authorized to establish, in be established. any building or buildings, or part of any building, used by said city, as a house of industry, or for any other purpose, a separate branch or branches of said house of reformation and employment, for females, or for the separate classification of such females. Children lead ing an idle or dissolute life, &c., may be sen tenced to house of reformation. 1847, 208, § 1. Right of appeal saved. Ibid, 2. 1843, 22, § 3. 9. The municipal or police court of said city, upon the complaint, under oath, of the mayor or any alderman thereof, or of any of the directors of the house of industry, or of the said house of reformation and employment, or of the overseers of the poor of said city, that any minor, under the age of sixteen years, lives an idle and dissolute life, and that his parents are dead, or, if living, do, from vice or any other cause, neglect to provide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary control over such minor, shall have power, upon conviction thereof, to sentence such minor to such house of reformation and employment, to be kept and governed according to law. 10. Nothing in the two preceding sections is to be construed to take away the right of appeal from the police court to the municipal court.1 Directors of house of indus ORDINANCE OF THE CITY.2 SECT. 1. The directors of the house of industry are try appointed di- hereby appointed directors of the house of reformation, of reformation. With authority to take such steps as may be necessary to rectors of house City Records, vol. 19, p. 172. 1 See the acts respecting the State Reform School, 1847, c. 165, and 1850, c. 112. 2 The house of reformation was originally established in a portion of the building occupied as a house of correction, and was under the care of the directors of the house of industry until 1833, when a separate board was chosen. In 1841 a committee was appointed, of which Mr. Chapman, mation united Asylum. unite the same with the Boylston Asylum, now under their House of reforcharge, and henceforward to use the building for the new with Boylston institution, which shall be called the Boylston School and House of Reformation, but shall be a part of the house of industry, and which is hereby declared to be also the institution for the reception, instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders, under the act passed March 4th, 1826. pow ers of directors. SECT. 2. The said directors shall have all the rights Rights and and powers of the directors of the house of reformation, as Ibid. to all children who have been heretofore indented from the said house, and as to protecting the rights, and superintending the welfare of said children, and enforcing the provisions of said indentures. establish or keep 1. No person shall hereafter establish or keep any No person shall intelligence office, for the purpose of obtaining places of an intelligence employment for male or female family domestics, servants, license, under or other laborers, except seamen, or for procuring or giving 1848, 270, § 1. the mayor, was chairman, "with instructions to consider the whole subject of the house of reformation, and whether any change is expedient in the law establishing said institution, and to report by ordinance or otherwise." This committee reported, among other things, that it was expedient to place this institution under the charge of the directors of the house of industry; and they reported two orders to that effect, which were adopted June 28, 1841, and are inserted above. See City Documents of 1841, Nos. 6 and 14. See also City Records, vol. 4, pp. 24, 46, 52, 112, (b), 148, 149, 200, 223, 333; vol. 10, pp. 145, 147, 480; vol. 11, pp. 127, 149, 250, 324; vol. 12, p. 283; vol. 19, p. 172. office, without a penalty. |